Share this:

An angered Mike Singletary disrupted practice right in the middle of a two-minute drill Monday between the first-team offense and defense and forced the entire team to run liners. “You don’t want to practice?” Singletary asked rhetorically. “OK, we’ll run. When you come off the field I want your head up and your shoulders back!”

Singletary grew enraged after he thought the offense quit after it continually misfired during the drill.

The series began with Manny Lawson beating right tackle Adam Snyder which forced Shaun Hill to check the ball down. A play later, Hill’s pass was Josh Morgan was nearly intercepted by cornerback Allen Rossum (who looks good as a cover man). Then things unraveled for Hill and the offense with Snyder jumping off-sides, and then a weird play where it seemed like half the team didn’t know the snap count. Hill followed that by throwing an out pattern while the receiver darted to the middle and the ball was intercepted by Rossum.

The guy looks good.

The offense then lined up and tried it again, this time Vernon Davis never turned back for a quick pass thrown his way, two plays later on fourth down, Dashon Goldson knocked a pass away from Davis in the middle of the field. That’s when a dejected offense trudged to the sideline, which angered the head coach.

After running three sets of liners, which were won by Alex Smith, the team went back at it again with better results, except for Hill. He continued to struggle nearly throwing an interception to Patrick Willis, overthrowing Delanie Walker and then hitting Davis in stride on a ball he dropped. Hill finished the practice on the sidelines while Smith and Damon Huard finished up.

Before the offensive implosion, Smith ran a fairly crisp two-minute drill. Firing completions to Frank Gore, Walker and Morgan, Smith got the offense in position for a short field goal, an accomplishment against a defense that’s been far ahead of the offense so far.

That brings us to another matter, the unmistakable improvement by Smith who clearly outplayed Hill on Monday and during the weekend minicamp.

“(My shoulder) is totally different from last year,” Smith said. “There isn’t the soreness, and inflammation, the pain.”

Wire sutures were removed from Smith’s shoulder in October and since then, his shoulder has greatly improved.

“I was skeptical,” Smith said of his shoulder’s ability to rebound from 18 months of surgeries and set backs. “I didn’t know if I was going to go out and compete and not be able to do everything.”

Another aspect that’s different? Singletary and new offensive coordinator Jimmy Raye, who are upfront with their quarterbacks, which was far different from the cloak-and-dagger style of Mike Martz, where the quarterbacks never knew where they stood.

“The attitude is far different,” Smith said. “I don’t know if I want to say it was more lax (last year) but coach Singletary tells you what he thinks and what he wants. He’ll tell you to your face.”

Smith has certainly made a step from where he was during the pre-draft minicamp, and he says it’s just the comfort level with Raye’s offense.

The combination of a pain-free shoulder, a relatively good grasp of the offense and a better relationship with his coaches, make one thing is clear – Alex Smith is a factor.

But before I close the post, J.T. O’Sullivan looked great a year ago and in training camp while Hill scuffled along and we all know what happened there.